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Western Indian Ocean Pollution Regional Exercise

The Regional Coordination Operations Centre (RCOC) and the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC), armed components of the Western Indian Ocean Maritime Security Architecture, established in 2018, are organising a regional simulation exercise on Marine Pollution from 25th to 27th July 2023.

Entitled Western Indian Ocean Pollution Regional Exercise (WIOPOLREX), the event which will be held both online and face-to- face at the RCOC headquarters in Seychelles, will bring together over 15 regional States to test their level of preparedness and responsiveness with regards to any accidental pollution event (oil, hazardous and noxious substances, etc).

Key international partners will also provide technical and technological support during the Table Top exercise. This initiative is supported by the Indian Ocean Commission through the EU-funded MASE programme.

This tabletop exercise (TTX ) WIOPOLREX is part of the overall action plan of the regional centres to improve their capacity to coordinate and response to maritime incidents, together with riparian States.

Lessons learnt from the oil pollution incident involving MV WAKASIO on 25th July 2020 off the South-eastern coast of Mauritius (where approximately 1,000 metric tonnes of oil was spilt at sea) and other grounding and/or drifting situations occurred in Comoros,

Madagascar, Seychelles and Reunion, clearly show that a country on its own cannot tackle all levels of marine pollution.

Regional and international cooperation and coordination are key to address effectively and timely these types of incidents.

Main Objectives of the WIOPOLREX
Strengthen regional and international Cooperation in responding to marine pollution incidents
Enable participating States to examine their marine pollution preparedness and strategy as well as their ability to share information and implement responses as per their respective National Contingency Plan
Contribute to the review of the regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan proposed under international instruments, in particular, the Nairobi Convention
Examine the ability of the RCOC and RMIFC to support regional coordination in the event of accidental marine pollution incidents while avoiding duplication
Identify gaps and test inter-agency coordination at a regional and international level during oil pollution response operations
Take stock of the equipments related to oil pollution responses both at national and regional levels.
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